The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1887-04-06
SERVING LIFE SENTENCES.
six Murderers and what They Have
to say of Themselves

Slnce inc hanging OF Mrs. hONalana
Druse, says The Brookiyn Union, much
has been written and said about women
murdcrers and how they generally es-
cape the extreme penalty Of their crimes
on account of their sex. TO some ma
lures the prospects OF n lifelong i'm
prisonment would undoubtedly be
worse than death, but rs to the six wo-
men now behind the gloomy walls of
the Kings county penitentiary whose
hands, like those of the Hcrkimer coun-
t. woman, and stained with human
blood, there is no doubt but that they
would far rather continue in their pres
emit quarters through an unbroken
number of years than be swung out in
to eternity.
A representative OF The Union visit
cd Warden Green yesterday and in
spected the female prison where these
murderesscs are confined. 1t was about
noon, and the reporter was able TO OBJ
serve for some little time the crowd OF
female conyicts at their midday meal
without himself being observed by
them. The fact was impressed upon
the scribes mind that these unfortu-
nate creatures, although penned up
within the narrow confines of a prison,
were not, by any means, rs detected as
might be supposed. The six life pris-
oners mingled among the rest, talked,
gossipped, and acted in rs unconcerned
4 manner as they would had they
been the occupants of Baxter
street tenement. They acted as ii they
were either resigned or indifferent to
their fate, and yet every one of these
lifers has been in the penitentary for
at least ten years. One of them is now
undergoing her twenty-third year OF
Imprisonment, and another her twen-
ty-nineth. 1t has been remarked that
one gets accustom to almost anything,
and the actions of these women did not
belle the sentiment. These six MUIR
decreases, in appearance and in the
amount of intelligence depicted on their
countenances, remind one of the aver
age class of women who can be seen
any day in walk through the lower
wards of New York or upon visit to
any of the tenement districts of the CITY,
They are neither above nor below the
average. No Lucretia Borgina villany
is shown in their countenances, nor do
they appear innocent and guiltless
They are all strong looking and COM
fortably proportioned. There is, per-
haps, hunted expression about their
eyes. which is not to be wondered at,
considering the fact that for years they
have looked upon the same scenes,
contemplated the same stone walls,
and heard no word of tender
sympathy (Which perhaps, after
all, they would not appreciate). The
most prominent among these modern
Borgias is Sarah Brooks. She was con-
victed twenty-three years ago for kill
ing her step-daughter by administering
slow poison. The two women had
quarreled over the disposition of some
property, and Mrs. Brooks chose this
rather vigorous method of getting rid
of her rival. She is supposed also to
have poisoned a number of other per-
sons. She is about 81 years of age.
tall, gaunt and angular, avoids
strangers, and is not fond of talking
about herself OF the other five
''livers" Emma Whimple, black
haired, dark-visaged woman, was con-
victed as an accessory TO the murder
of her husband. She was only 10 years
old when she began her long imprison-
ment. Mary L. Johnson, woman,
was convicted upon charge OF in
fanticide. Annie Barnie, also convict
ed of infanticide (she having thrown
her newborn baby into a canaD, is
little, low sized Irish woman, and looks
like anything but a murderess. Mary
Fish, convicted for the murder of her
husband, has been in prison twenty
eight years, and has served ten OF
them in the Kings county penitentiary.
She always wears white cap on her
head, and looks like French bonnie
retired on a pension. Lastly, Will
helmina Wyke, a German. was sem
fenced for numbering her husband.
The Wyke woman is the recluse of the
prison. She keeps in her cell nearly